Variational Methods in the pursuit of an Action principle for
fluid turbulence

Rich Kerswell

School of Mathematics

Bristol University

Abstract:

I will briefly discuss the history of variational methods applied to fluid
turbulence dating back to Malkus's original proposal in 1954, Howard's
reformulation in 1963, Busse's work in 1969 and 1970, and the discovery of
a complementary approach by Doering and Constantin in 1992.  First steps in
exploring the possible existence of an `action principle' will then be
described.